The present invention pertains to the fields of electrical devices, including lighting (as provided by lamps) and optical devices generally, such as lamps, LEDs, photocells, VCSELs (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers), microwave diodes and laser diodes, and, more particularly, to holders for such diodes.
With the continuing development of high-intensity, long-lived, high-efficiency light emitting diodes (LEDs), it is expected that incandescent and fluorescent lighting will eventually become obsolete. The development of gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor material, which makes possible providing white light, and the continuing progress in manufacturing GaN in bulk are in combination the major impetus for growth in the light emitting diode industry.
Not only are LEDs expected to replace incandescent and fluorescent lights for general illumination, but diode-based sources of other kinds of radiation besides visible are expected to replace existing corresponding devices in the next decade. For example, laser diodes are expected to be used not only in low-power applications such as telecommunications as they are now, but also as high-power lasers, replacing other kinds of lasers now used in such applications as cladding, cutting, drilling, surface modification (heat treating, glazing, surface alloying), and welding. Moreover, diode-based lasers (semiconductor lasers) are being further developed; a new kind of such a laser is a VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser), which is already having a dramatic influence in computing and networking, sensing, and other applications. Typical applications of VCSELs include: fiber optic data links, proximity sensors, encoders, laser range finders, laser printing, bar code scanning, and optical storage. In addition to the existing and anticipated uses of diodes as sources of radiation, diodes are currently of use not only as sources of radiation, but also as receivers, such as in detecting light so as to turn off or on an electrical device, i.e. for use in photocells.
With the apparently inevitable replacement of conventional lighting by LEDs and the further development and increasing use of diodes as sources and receivers for all kinds of radiation, what is needed is a holder, i.e. a plug and socket, for such diodes, ideally a holder that allows control over an assembly of such diodes so as to be able to, for example, vary the intensity of light produced by such diodes, or vary the color of the light (by connecting or disconnecting from a circuit diodes providing different colors of light that in combination yield the desired color).
Accordingly, the present invention provides a holder comprising a plug and socket, wherein the socket includes a diode able to serve as a source or receiver of visible or invisible radiation, wherein the socket has an elongated longitudinally extending cavity formed therein as the inner surface of a shell and includes a plurality of longitudinally spaced mutually insulated first contact elements disposed within said cavity, wherein the plug slidably registers with said cavity between advanced and retracted positions and has a leading end directed toward the base of said cavity, wherein the plug includes a plurality of longitudinally spaced, mutually insulated second contact elements disposed along said plug, and wherein the holder includes means maintaining a predetermined angular orientation between said plug and socket during relative sliding thereof and permitting relative rotation thereof at said plug advanced position, said first contact elements and second contact elements being out of engagement at said predetermined angular orientation and in engagement upon rotation in a single predetermined sense from said predetermined angular orientation to a closed contact position.
In accord with the first aspect of the invention, the diode may be for example a light-emitting diode (LED), or it may be a laser diode, or it may be a photocell diode, or it may be a microwave diode et al.
Also in accord with the first aspect of the invention, the holder may include a controller for controlling current to the diode. Further, the controller may be a resistor or may be an integrated circuit, or may control a switchable bank of resistors. Also further, the socket may include a plurality of diodes, and the controller may control a plurality of banks of resistors, each for limiting current to a respective diode or a series/parallel array of diodes. Also further, the diode may be provided as a series/parallel array of individual diodes; such an array may be either a two-dimensional array or a three-dimensional array, and may be either a purely series array or a purely parallel array or a series/parallel array, and, in addition, the output of the individual diodes may be in phased relation, with the array using for the individual diodes either diode sources or diode receivers of radiation.
Also in accord with the first aspect of the invention, the holder may include a plurality of longitudinally aligned sets of the longitudinally spaced second contact elements and a corresponding plurality of longitudinally aligned sets of the first longitudinally spaced contact elements, and the peripheries of the sets of second contact elements may be of arcuate configuration extending circumferentially about the plug for less than 360xc2x0 and in a straight line, lengthwise of the holder.
Also in accord with the first aspect of the invention, the socket may include a well portion defined by a cylindrical wall, the inner surface thereof having longitudinally spaced recesses formed therein, the first contact elements being located in the recesses and normally projecting above the upper edges thereof and being resiliently inwardly urged by the second contact elements during engagement therewith, and including lugs connected to the first contact elements and projecting through said cylindrical wall.
Also in accord with the first aspect of the invention, the orienting means may be defined by at least one longitudinally extending groove formed in one of the holder members and at least one slidably engaging protuberance mounted on the other of the members.
Still also in accord with the first aspect of the invention, the plug and socket may each include in a respective longitudinally extending center cavity an end of at least one conductor adapted for conveying high frequency and other signals and means for connecting the ends. Further, the conductor adapted for conveying the high frequency signals in the socket may be terminated in an integrated circuit embedded in the socket. Also further, the conductor adapted for conveying the high frequency signals in the socket may be terminated in at least one of the diodes held by the socket.